Lizard Racing Posted April 24, 2020 Posted April 24, 2020 Wal-Mart had some of these kits on sale over a year ago, so I got one not knowing what it would build. I'm not really into street machines, but couldn't pass up a '68 Camaro. It's just what the box says, a street machine, with no stock option. There is a fair bit of flash and mold mismatch. Being molded in dark blue to match the box art didn't help either. The hole in the hood would be a problem. I thought of making it a Trans-Am runner, but didn't feel like going to the work of gutting the interior and fabricating a roll cage. Then I was thumbing through the excellent book Super Stock: Drag Racing the Family Sedan by Larry Davis. In 1968 Dave Strickler ran a Z-28 Camaro in Super Stock/F. I already built a replica of his '69 big-block Camaro, so I decided on a SS/F runner. I couldn't fill in the hole in the hood to stock contour, so I exercised some artistic license and built up a '69 style cowl induction hood. Since the car was supposed to be a Z-28 I made the dual quad manifold using the kit manifold and carbs with scratch-built upper manifold. I haven't made the oval air flilter for this installation yet. The stock Z-28 also had the cowl intake plenum, which would not be used with the hood bulge. Since a Strickler replica was not possible, I made up a fictional Chevy dealer in Salt Lake City as a sponsor. Homemade decals were made for the sponsor and class lettering by making a text box in red with white letters printed on white decal paper. The stripes were left over from the Fred Cady sheet used on the '69 project. Lots of Micro Sol helped them conform to the hood contour and the vent louvers. If the stripes couldn't be used, I was going to say that this car was originally purchased with the Z-28 option, but the owner was too cheap to spring for the stripes. Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the sponsor name on this side is yellow instead of white, like on the left side. I tried a number of different color combinations for the sponsor name to show up on the red car ( I have enough white drag racers). But Dummy Me forgot to make two images for left and right. As long as you don't look at both sides, it should be OK. Thank you for looking and putting up with my story. 1
Snake45 Posted April 26, 2020 Posted April 26, 2020 Very sharp, you really captured the look and feel of the era. But your CI hood wouldn't be legal for Super Stock of the day. It didn't exist till mid-'69, and of course it was never available on any '68 Camaro (although in real life it bolts right on). I'm also not sure if the 2x4 setup was legal for Super Stock--it might be, I'd have to do some research. Both problems could be solved by declaring your model a 1969 or later Modified Production. Would probably fall into about C/MP. I'm hoping to build one of these up this year, and I'm gonna do mine as a MP, using the kit's tunnel ram manifold, which would be legal for MP as long as anything coming through the hood is covered by a scoop of some sort. Well done and model on!
Lizard Racing Posted May 5, 2020 Author Posted May 5, 2020 On 4/26/2020 at 9:52 AM, Snake45 said: Very sharp, you really captured the look and feel of the era. But your CI hood wouldn't be legal for Super Stock of the day. It didn't exist till mid-'69, and of course it was never available on any '68 Camaro (although in real life it bolts right on). I'm also not sure if the 2x4 setup was legal for Super Stock--it might be, I'd have to do some research. Both problems could be solved by declaring your model a 1969 or later Modified Production. Would probably fall into about C/MP. I'm hoping to build one of these up this year, and I'm gonna do mine as a MP, using the kit's tunnel ram manifold, which would be legal for MP as long as anything coming through the hood is covered by a scoop of some sort. Well done and model on! Thanks for your kind comments. As far as I could determine, the 2x4 setup was legal in SS, but it had the induction air drawn through the firewall from the cowl vents. The hood is where the artistic license came in. Best of luck with your build. This kit has lots of potential.
Bills72sj Posted May 5, 2020 Posted May 5, 2020 3 hours ago, Lizard Racing said: Thanks for your kind comments. As far as I could determine, the 2x4 setup was legal in SS, but it had the induction air drawn through the firewall from the cowl vents. The hood is where the artistic license came in. Best of luck with your build. This kit has lots of potential. Artistic license. I am all for that. Nice build.
shoopdog Posted May 5, 2020 Posted May 5, 2020 Very nice build and the hood turned out great. Fabricating a hood scoop is well above my skill level!
johnny rocket Posted May 5, 2020 Posted May 5, 2020 Nice build, what products did you use to make your decals
Lizard Racing Posted May 5, 2020 Author Posted May 5, 2020 5 hours ago, johnny rocket said: Nice build, what products did you use to make your decals I just used the lettering on Word with various fonts and sizes and printed on white decal paper from DecalGear. One problem is getting letters small enough for 1:25 application and keeping clarity. The key is a good printer that won't smear the outline colors; not a cheap one like mine.
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